The Suicide Squad: James Gunn Had "Easier Path" After WB's "Troubles" With 2016 Film

Filmmaker James Gunn has been very open about the process behind getting The Suicide Squad made, especially today as we're one month away from the release of the film and the embargo on our visit to the set also lifted. In response to a story revealing new details on the film from the set, Gunn revealed he told the studio in his first meeting about making the movie that it needed to be "an R-rated war film with no-holds-barred," and that they agreed since he's "always up front with partners about what I want to do." This revelation prompted a response from David Ayer, director of 2016's Suicide Squad, who simply said: "Dang."

Gunn extended a friendly hand to the filmmaker though, replying to him and adding: "Although a lot of the major players at Warners were different people, there was no doubt their troubles with you helped to pave an easier path for me, David, so I'm very grateful for that, and for everything else you did to help this movie along its path." Ayer responded in kind too, replying: "Aw man thank you. You're good people James. Godspeed."

Though some characters that appeared in Ayer's original movie will return for Gunn's movie, folks like Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, and Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, the new movie will not acknowledge the events of that chapter in the DCEU.

Although a lot of the major players at Warners were different people, there was no doubt their troubles with you helped to pave an easier path for me, David, so I’m very grateful for that, and for everything else you did to help this movie along its path.

— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) July 7, 2021

"We just don't address it any tangible form," producer Peter Safran told ComicBook.com and other journalists on the set. "Yes, they're the characters, the actors that played them in the first movie. But we really wanted to make sure that this stands on its own two feet. So again, it's why you can't really call it... It's not a sequel, but there are some characters that were in the first movie, right? So it's not really a full reboot either. So we just call it James Gunn's The Suicide Squad."

He added, "I think Suicide Squad very much is in line with what we did on Aquaman and Shazam! in the sense that the ideas make a great standalone movie. That's what we're doing here. We're just making a great movie, we hope. But that's the focus. It doesn't have to live within some broader universe automatically."

The Suicide Squad hits theaters and streams on HBO Max on August 6!